Shibui
By: Jessica Harding
What They Have to Offer
Shibui Japanese restaurant opened its doors in 1981. This a family owned and operaterd restaurant. We have received a number of awards over these years. Shibui not only keeps its traditional japanese cuisine but is also moving along with the availability of ingredients from all over the world and creating fusion style dishes, which have been a hit in our business. They are also the original creators of few rolls that you can now find all over Miami, like the Luisiana, Caliente, and Margy rolls.
Shibui Japanese restaurant offers a variety of Japanese cuisine. The restaurant's menu features appetizers, soups, sauces, spring rolls, scallions and salads, as well as a variety of crab, chicken, beef, spinach, ham, egg, pork, cheese, octopus, squid, fish and scallop dishes.
What We Got From Our Visit There
When it comes to the traditional Japanese look, as soon as you walk in, you are surrounded by beautiful antique looking tables and decorations. Paintings and calligraphy were scattered along the walls. The seating arrangement consisted of normal waist height tables and chairs. On the upper level of the restaurant, they had tables low to the ground with Japanese seating mats . It is common in the winter time for the Japanese people to use these sorts of tables and mats in order to keep warm with their feet under the table, covered by thick cloth. This was a nice touch that you don't see very often even in the most authentic restaurant.
Another thing we noticed from the start, was how kind and welcoming the staff was. The waitress seated us quickly despite the busy waiting area. We were tended to quickly and the food came out quickly as well. The service all in all was amazing.
For the food, we got the sushi and sashimi boat. The boat offered a variety of different sushi flavors. Along with this, we also asked for the chef's pick. This dish is normally small portions of many different dishes that the head chef loves the most.
The Interviews
Before we began, the chefs kindly agreed to a short interview. We wanted to get more information as to their background and how they got to where they are today.
What we learned from the interview was that the head chef, as well as the majority of the regular chefs were Asian. The head chef used to live in Japan and he had lived in Peru for a short while. He believes that both cultures, even if one more than the other, are present in his cooking. One of the outliers on the menu was a japeruvian ceviche dish. It could be found as a meal, or in the Chef's Pick as well.
Once we were finished, we decided to get a few more opinions on the place by asking some customers walking out.
The customers all spoke about how they loved the place and that they would definitely come again. Many of them were loyal customers already. You don't see a nearly five star restaurant with so many loyal customers very often. This is most likely because of their affordable prices and high quality as well as the service which brings it all together. There is hard to find fault in such a lovely place.